Decisions... Decisions... Capella, Michaels or Fisher?

Hello everyone! I am struggling with deciding on a surgeon for much-needed plastic surgery. I lost close to 100 pound in total but it's wrecked my five foot frame. I need an upper body liift, lower body lift, arm lift, breast lift and thigh lift. I've had consultations with three surgeons so far and love them all -- but their approaches are each a little different. With Peter Fisher, I'd have two rounds of surgery, 3-6 months apart. I'd have to travel from DC to Texas and stay there for 2-3 weeks. With Michaels, I'd have three rounds of surgeries but he is just 20 minutes away from where I live. His cost per surgery is the highest though and with three surgeries I'd also have to pay three times for hospital/anesthesia fees. With Capella, it would be one or two surgeries. He is a few hours drive from where I live but I have family near him and they would help me out during the initial recovery.

If you used any of these surgeons, can you tell me about your experiences? If you had multiple consultations, what was the deciding factor? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am one of Dr. Michaels' biggest fans!  I had a breast lift and lower body lift in one surgery, and an arm lift in a second surgery.  He is fantastic and phenomenal and my scars are virtually non-existent.  I could not be happier.  I am near DC too, and I loved being local.  I had a great experience at Sibley.  My recovery was much better than I expected.  I had also had a consult with Capella but I like Dr. M's stitching and the fact that he is seriously OCD about his work.  I am so happy with my results!!!

Thank you DCGirl! Sibley is where my primary doctor is so that's a definite plus. The hospital fees are n concern because I have to do three surgeries with Dr. Michaels. In some ways, three surgeries seems conservative and safe but in other ways, I'm afraid to go under that many times. 

I hear you - but I always felt very safe and under great care having two surgeries with him.  My BL and LBL was an alllll-day surgery - I think it took like 10 hours?  But then my arms were like 2 or 3 hours - went home the same day!  I still marvel everyday at how tight my stomach is (almost 2 years later) and my breasts are right where they should be...and my arms look good with minimally visible scars too.  I think he's a mastermind!  Here is a link to a doc that details all my experience with him.  Good luck!

Dcgirl - you are simply wonderful. Thank you for all of the information!

No problem at all!  I honestly can recommend Dr. M with no reservations.  Cynthia (NYMom) also loved loved loved him (but she is currently showing off her hot bod on vacation in Hawaii!). So did Holly (BreatheMusic).  He has quite a fan club.  You will be in great hands with him, but many people love Capella too.  It's scary but exciting to get plastics!  And for me, it's kind of an insurance policy to not let regain creep up and ruin my new bod :)

I'm considering the same three, but haven't done any consults  yet.  I don't think you could go wrong with any of them - they're all tops in their field and all nationally (internationally, actually...) known.  I hope more people will weigh in on this one - I'm very interested as well!!

I'm another person who went with Dr. Michaels.  I had a LBL, BL, and arm lift all at once (only doable because my BL was VERY minor) and those still took longer than estimated and I was under for 12 hours.

As much as I love Dr. M and definitely recommend him, and also agree that it was a big deal to me to be close.... the idea of having to do 3 surgeries sounds rough.  And when I compared the quotes I had from Dr. M and Dr. Capella, even though surgeon fees were close, the hospital fees were def much higher in DC.  Given that it would also take 3 surgeries vs 2, if that cost is going to make you getting all of the surgeries unaffordable, I'd consider going with Dr. C (I rea''y can't speak for Dr. Fisher, but having to travel that far would be a deal breaker for me, especially now that I've been through the experience).

If money isn't really an issue, I personally like Dr. M's method's over Dr. C as I don't like the weird pie crust technique.... even if it does flatten over about 6 weeks.  But that's really just a personal ick preference for me.  His work still seems to be amazing. And having family that you can stay with up there is a huge deal since honestly, traveling immediately after just sounds really sucky to me.  I traveled an hour from the hospital to stay with my mom and I thought that was more than plenty!

I'm leaning toward Capella. All three doctors are tied for me in terms of results but now that I've told my family about the possibility of surgery they are going crazy with the idea that I need to stay local to NJ where I'll have lots of help. Money is also an issue - if I were younger it wouldn't be as much of an issue but I'm going into my retirement fund to finance the surgery. The older I get, the more concerned I am with having enough for retirement. I do like the fact that I can get almost everything done with Capella and I'll be under almost half the time compared to the others. Also, the hospital and anesthesia fees in DC are unbelievable compared to NJ. Texas is also higher than NJ but still lower than DC. 

As far as the three docs for anyone considering them, here's my take on the consultation process. Fisher was my favorite in terms of being personable and making me feel like I was in the very best of hands. If he was closer to me/my family and at NJ hospital prices, he'd be my number 1 choice. I should note that I had an extensive telephone consultation with Fisher before flying down to see him for an in-person consultation. That might be the reason I felt more of a "connection" with him. He also answers his emails and inquiries on the site, so we had quite a few interactions before I met him in person. Capella seemed so highly competent and willing to spend a long time talking and going over options. He uses an assistant during surgery which greatly cuts down the time. I prefer this but I know that others might not want two people doing different sides of their body at the same time. Michaels seemed the most detail oriented during the consultation and the before/after pics he reviewed with me in his office showed even better results than what I saw on his site. He also seemed to have the stamina and energy to do a long operation. Unfortunately, I can't afford the number of procedures I'd need with him - I hope I'm not going to regret letting money influence my choice on this. 

I don't think I could go wrong with any of them. Now I just need to bite the bullet and put down my deposit. 

So right off the bat I am going to tell you I have not met with anyone or had any plastic surgery.   I have only begun looking into it - I'm just shy of 6 months out from vsg and starting to think about documentation for eventual surgery.  

From what I have seen capella has phenomenal results - absolutely gorgeous work and is probably who I will wind up with just because of proximity - I live in NY - work right across the GWB from Hackensack in the Bronx. 

HOwever I have heard some complaints about the way he stitches and therefore the scarring that remains.   So I think that this is something I would def want to thoroughly investigate prior to deciding.  Obviously there is going to be scarring but I would also like it to be as minimal as possible.  

So just some food for thought from someone who is still researching.